Now it's My Turn
by darkwriter14
Summary: When Mikoto finds Touma in her shoes, she decides that it's her turn to be the one to save him.


Okay. I am completely aware that this story is utterly ridiculous. I am aware that Mikoto and Touma are acting completely outside the realm of canon, both anime and light novel. This is very cheesy, and doesn't make a whole lot of sense. But the thought occurred to me: what would Mikoto do if she found Touma in her shoes, going to sacrifice himself? So the idea just kind of took off from there, and this flew out on a whim. I promise I'm a better writer than this-there is proof in my other To Aru story, Tears for Last Order. I feel like the characterization is a lot better in that than in this. But sometimes I just need to flex my fingers so I can get the creative juices flowing to better write original stories of my own. As a last side note, I, of course, own nothing related to the To Aru universe.

She had caught up to him, but it didn't matter. There was nothing she could do to stop him. He was going to run off to save the world. Again.

But this time, he wasn't going to come back.

There would be no miraculous reappearances, as there had been after World War III. No abilities, magical or esper, could halt the death that was awaiting him. And nobody would be able to change his mind on meeting his fate head-on, not when his death had been broadcasted to the world as the end-all solution to the descending chaos. A deadline had been given for him to present himself to the mastermind behind the world's destruction at dawn the next morning, and he was set on following through.

The residents of the world, including those of Academy City, had retreated into their homes in fear of the impending doom. Roads into and out of the city were blocked, and the streets were eerily quiet. No one dared wander around outside.

Except Mikoto Misaka.

She had staked out the street corner across from Touma Kamijo's apartment as soon as she had heard the news. She knew that he was more likely to slip out at night, after his friend and roommate, Index, was asleep. There was no way the young nun would allow him to leave voluntarily, and he wouldn't have wanted to fight with her to force his way to his death. It only made sense that he would wait for Index to fall asleep with a false sense of his security before he slipped away.

Sure enough, he had crept quietly into the night around 1 AM. He had glanced slowly around himself, as if gathering in his remaining life, before heading at a restrained pace down the street.

It had not been hard to catch up to him, what with his slowed pace and Mikoto's anger. Unable to hold back the anger, fear, and anguish churning through her body, she had tackled him to the ground from behind, sparks flying.

"You can't go!" she had yelled, arms tight around his torso.

Although winded, Touma had managed twist around in her arms so that he faced her. "B-biriBiri?!" he had choked out in surprise. "What are you-"

"You forced your ideal ending onto me once," she had interjected in a tremulous voice. Tears brimmed. "You stopped me from doing the exact same thing that you're trying to do now. You showed me that there were better options than me giving myself up to Accelerator to stop the experiments on my sisters. You gave me my life back." Her hands trembled, but she had tightened her grip and looked him in the eyes through her tears. "Now it's my turn to do the same for you."

His gaping mouth had closed. After a moment of studying her face in consternation, a sad smile had lifted the corners of his lips. He had smoothed down her hair. Merely a comforting gesture, Mikoto had had to remind herself. "I can't let you do that."

"B-but-"

He had shaken his head. Smoothed her hair once more. "I don't see anyone finding a loophole out of this one. No talking him down, no defeating him. No matter how many people we could get on our side, I don't see how we could beat him; he's too powerful." He had bowed his head in shame. "And I won't let anyone else die when I can so easily prevent all of this. It's-I'm-not worth it."

"But you are!" she had burst out. Immediately realizing what she had said, her cheeks had flamed the dark red color of cherries.

And stupid, dense, ridiculous Touma, not understanding the meaning behind her outburst, had looked back into her eyes with another sad smile. "It's nice of you to say that," he had said.

So now she stared into his eyes, not knowing what else she could do to get him to stay. But as he gently extricated himself from her hold and began to stand, a crazy plan took shape in her mind. It was scary, and humiliating, and possibly wouldn't work. But it was all that she could think of.

Touma pulled himself to his feet, and Mikoto grabbed at his wrist. He looked down at her in alarm.

Her face flamed. "If you really won't let me stop you, then...w-will you do one last thing for me before you go?"

Confusion furrowed his brows. "What?"

She gulped down all her inhibitions and pushed the words out. "S-s-stay with me until you go?"

Despite the direness of the situation, she couldn't help the outpouring of electricity from her body in response to the look on his face. "Not like THAT, you idiot!"

After she had downplayed the implications behind her words, Touma had agreed to spending his remaining time with her. They were going to talk, and eat food, and just spend general time with each other, per Mikoto's request. An odd, wistful look had passed across Touma's face at her explanation, which Mikoto quickly dismissed. Despite his agreement, she hadn't trusted him not to run off while she made arrangements. So she forced away her embarrassment and grabbed his hand tightly.

After a hurried text conversation with her friends Saten and Uiharu requesting that they occupy her roommate, Kuroko, for the night, Mikoto pocketed her cell phone. Guilt at her deception briefly overtook her, but she pushed it to the back of her mind.

She needed to do this.

They made their way back to Mikoto's dorm in silence. She refused to let go of his hand the whole way there despite the red that permanently colored her cheeks at touching him.

Strangely, it almost felt like he was clutching back.

After sneaking past the dorm supervisor, the pair entered Mikoto's and Kuroko's shared room. Thankfully, Uiharu and Saten had succeeded in luring Kuroko from the room despite the late hour, so Mikoto and Touma had the room to themselves. It was the second time Touma had been in her room, but the first time that he was there with Mikoto.

She had never been in an enclosed room-let alone her bedroom-alone with him before. It was almost overwhelming.

But she couldn't let herself be distracted by her emotions. Ignoring the tingling in her skin that his proximity induced, she finally dropped his hand and moved deeper into the room. "Y-you can sit down," she said, pointing to a spot on the floor next to her bed. Bashfully not looking at his face, she knelt beside her bed to pull her stash of treats from their bin beneath the bed. She piled them on the floor in front of where Touma had sat, cross-legged. "I'll grab some drinks, too," she murmured.

She felt his eyes follow her as she moved to the corner of the room where she and her roommate kept a mini-fridge plugged into the wall. It was positioned beneath Kuroko's desk, so Mikoto had to crouch to get to it. As she knelt, she spied the box of unmentionables that Kuroko kept stashed on top of the fridge. Mikoto sighed.

She steeled herself before returning with two bottled green teas. She handed one to Touma as she sat beside him. There was a hint of confusion in his voice as he thanked her.

"Tell me something," she said after a moment of silence in which they opened their drinks.

"...okay," he said, a bit uneasily.

Mikoto rolled her eyes and gave him a playful jab in the ribs with her elbow. "Relax, I'm not going to zap you or anything." She handed him a bag of chips from her pile of snacks as a peace offering.

A half-smile broke across Touma's sober face. "Okay," he repeated. His voice sounded lighter. He took a sip of his drink.

She took a deep breath before proceeding. "You know a lot of g-girls. So I'm c-curious: Have you ever b-been-" She gulped. "-in l-l-love?"

Green tea sprayed, thankfully, in the opposite direction of Mikoto's face as Touma spluttered in surprise. His cheeks were red as his gaze whipped to Mikoto's embarrassed face. "W-what?!" he choked out.

Mikoto forced herself to repeat the question. "Have you ever been in love?"

Upon realizing her question was serious, Touma became quiet. He set his drink down and leaned back on his hands, his gaze drifting to the side as he thought. "Love, huh?" he mumbled.

She wanted to know his answer. She didn't want to know his answer. A few long moments stretched out in which part of her hoped he would answer. But she knew that no matter what his answer could eventually be, it didn't matter. It couldn't matter.

All that mattered was her, and what she could do.

She swallowed her inhibitions. Took a deep breath. "I...I have." She placed a shaking right hand on top of Touma's, and his eyes snapped to her in surprise. She pushed down her fear and forced her gaze to meet his. "I am. I'm in love with you, Touma Kamijo."

Touma was frozen in shock. Mikoto leaned in closer to him, brushing her lips against his. Heat spread through her body at the contact. She pushed away the distraction and moved her free hand to the pocket in her skirt.

But then his hands were on either side of her face, and all thoughts fled away from her head. She stilled.

He pulled away marginally to look into her eyes. "I'm having a hard time believing this, with my awful luck and all." That wistful look Mikoto had noticed earlier had returned to his face. "You, the third-ranked Level 5 in Academy City? The Ace of Tokiwadai? In love with me? It's something I never could have hoped for." He gave a short laugh. "But...it's definitely something I've imagined."

Mikoto's eyes widened in shock.

He ran the fingers of his left hand gently through her hair. "My answer to your question is 'yes'." He smiled softly. "It's you. It took a while to realize it, but it has been for a long time."

Mikoto felt tears flood her eyes. She leaned forward, and Touma drew her face to his. Their lips met in a gentle, drawn out kiss.

When they broke apart, Mikoto remembered the need for air and gasped in a breath. She felt her pulse slamming in her veins, and her head spun. She was torn between the urge to shock him out of embarrassment and kiss him again.

Her thoughts must have shown on her face, because Touma let out a quiet laugh. "Please don't shock me, BiriBiri," he joked, leaning away slightly.

Mikoto gave him a pout and looked up at him through her lashes. "I-I wasn't going to!" she stuttered out. "A-and...would you call me by my real name?"

Touma seemed to stop breathing for a second. Red flooded his cheeks and his gaze momentarily left hers. "A-alright," he said. He looked back at her. "Mikoto."

The task ahead of her suddenly seemed a thousand times harder. Mikoto heaved a shaky breath and placed one of her hands on top of Touma's, which still rested against her face. She moved closer and kissed him again. It took all of her willpower not to get lost in the way that he angled his face to deepen the kiss, and the way that one of his hands drifted down to rest against the curve of her spine.

It barely even registered with Touma as she pulled his right hand down beside him, her fingers brushing against his skin. She pressed him back against the side of the bed, her left hand drifting unnoticed to the pocket of her skirt.

He didn't realize anything was amiss until he suddenly felt something oddly ticklish on the skin of his wrist. His eyes drifted open to glance down, and he froze. Mikoto gave a sad sigh and pulled away.

"I told you that it's my turn," she explained. "I'm sorry I had to do it like this." She gestured to Kuroko's pair of fluffy pink handcuffs, which secured Touma to the leg post of her bed, with a rueful smile. She had slipped them into her pocket earlier when she had grabbed their drinks. "This was the only thing I could think of to stop you, to give you your life back. Like you did for me." She paused, her eyes filling with bittersweet tears. "But I never thought that it would work so well."

Touma stared at her wordlessly.

She brought herself to her feet. She blinked away her tears, and she took on a business tone of voice. "Now, let me make something clear: I'm not running off to blindly give up my life. I plan on giving it my all, even though I know I probably won't win." Her eyes met his, and she gave him a cocky wink. "So don't let my death be in vain, okay? Find another way. That's my dying wish."

She moved to the door, where her hand paused on the doorknob. "And...it wasn't all a ploy." She glanced over her shoulder to give him a last smile. "I really was- _am_ -in love with you. Please believe that."

And with that, she was gone. The door _clicked_ as it shut behind her.

And no matter how hard Touma fought against his restraints, no matter how hard he kicked at the bed frame that was bolted to the floor, no matter how loud he screamed, he couldn't bring her back.

Well, there you have it. I always love supportive feedback-no hate, please! And I would love to write more fics in the future about these two, fics that are HAPPY (I actually hate tragedies)! Any prompt suggestions are welcome! :3


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